Werewolf Week: The Beast Must Die

How do folks!  Say how do we pep up a tired notion like a werewolf story?  Given it is commonly based in creatures hunting a snarling beast only after multiple murders.  How about a nutty wealthy philanthropist hell bent to play a deadly game of Ten Little Indians…with a werewolf?   Grab a chair, prepare to be dazzled and amazed.  This is The Beast Must Die.

Spoilers lurking about!!!

BBC director Paul Annett (The Worker, Fraud Squad, Kate, Crown Court, New Scotland Yard and Little Lord Fauntleroy) tackles Michael Winder’s (Dixon of Dock Green, The Mask of Janus, Champion House, The Saint and The Ace of Wands) screenplay. Alternatively titled The Black Werewolf; this supernatural angle to Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians.  Seven people invited to spend time at the whim of one Tom Newcliffe, millionaire and game hunter (Calvin Lockhart of A Dandy in Aspic, Dark of the Sun, Salt and Pepper, Myra Breckinridge, Hung Up and The African Deal) and his wife Caroline (Marlene Clark of Ganja & Hess, Enter the Dragon, Black Mamba, Newman’s Law, Lord Shango and Switchblade Sisters) now feels after hearing tales of an existing werewolf roaming about his estateand through his own intuition feels it is clearly one of these people. 

Our group consists of diplomat Arthur Bennington (Charles Gray of You Only Live Twice, The Devil Rides Out, Diamonds Are Forever, The Upper Crusts, Dial M for Murder and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes), classic pianist Jan Jarmokowski (Michael Gambon of Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, The Borderers, Eyeless in Gaza, The Challengers, BBC Play of the Month, Gosford Park) and his lover Davina Gilmore (Ciaran Madden of Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood, Sense and Sensibility, Gawain and the Green Knight, A Spy at Evening, A Married Man and The Body in the Library), artist and former convict Paul Foote (Tom Chadbon of Tess, Casualty, Shooting Fish and Casino Royale)  Newcliffe’s assistant Pavel  (Anton Diffring of Circus of Horrors, The Blue Max, Fahrenheit 451 and Where Eagles Dare) and last but certainly not least archaeologist and lycanthropy enthusiast Professor Christopher Lundgren (Peter Cushing of Horror of Dracula, Island of Terror, Dr. Who and the Daleks,  Daleks’ Invasion Earth:2150 A.D., Sherlock Holmes, Star Wars, Shock Waves and Top Secret!).  The estate is wired with security cameras and a motion tracking system.  

An interesting bit about this film that they try to get the audience to guess with of the invited is in fact the werewolf at the being of the film and by a clip asking people in the audience if they could identify the werewolf.  Towards the in end is a 30 second Werewolf Break allowing the audience to sum up the evidence and come to conclusion?  That’s right, it is a who dunnit with fur.   A horror mystery with the attempt at audience interaction seems more appropriate if you could have midnight showings in a theater. So this would be a recommendation for a fun get together and see if anyone has the dosh to figure out the creature.